Handwashing versus using an automatic dishwasher

It is great that we live in a world, where we can enjoy our meals without having to worry about doing the dishes, or have to slave getting congealed grease off pots and pans. The more we look at this dilemma (hand washing vs. automated dishwashing) the more we see that automated dishwashing is in fact the better alternative. Why I think that? Well, many studies have shown that a dishwasher saves both time, energy, soap and water and it guarantees that it would get the job done 100%. But before we start our comparison, we must look at each of these methods individually, and draw our conclusions from there.

Handwashing

Handwashing has been the preferred method for cleaning dishes in the kitchen for as long as 100 000 years. Our technology may have changed for better home improvement, but the basic principles have remained virtually unchanged. You have a dirty dish, you rinse it under water (detergents not been invented until recently). There is absolutely no magic to it – all this procedure needs are a couple of sturdy hands and access to running water. Many people still practice this method; either because they don’t have access to better technology or they simple feel like doing it by hand. Either way, this is still the preferred method for cleaning dishes and the most widely used one as well.

Using a Dishwasher

Dishwashers are a fantastic alternative to hand washing! They can save you a lot of money, but only if you trust in their abilities. For one, they use only 50% of the water and energy you would use doing the dishes by hand. There are a few brands of dishwashers that can down this percent even further. The average tap dispenses water at a rate of 4 liters per minute – just count how many minutes would it take to wash plates, bowls, knives, forks, pots, pans etc. Several calculations have been made in this department, stating that the average dishwasher uses about 40 gallons of water at a time – and that is a lot of water! The same researchers found, that the average dishwashing unit will use only 13-14 gallons of water on a single goal.

But let us not kid ourselves; people don’t care at all about how much water they waste away. What people are concerned about is how convenient a device like this truly is. It is very convenient in fact. It would save you tremendous amounts of time, even if you don’t have that many dishes to begin with.

Another thing that makes dishwashers such an irreplaceable part of our everyday lives, is that it does the job done better than any person ever could (unless you spend like 5 minutes cleaning a single dish). The hot water displacement system allows for even cleaning, both on the front and the back of the plate.

In recent years, many household appliances have been made ‘dishwasher friendly’, meaning that they can be cleaned in a regular dishwasher without there being any danger to either the appliance or the dishwasher itself. This is quite convenient, considering that before you had to clean these by hand.

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter where we look – we will always find that dishwashers are much better for cleaning big loads of dirty dishes, where as hand washing should be left for smaller, faster operations.